When an integrity measure tends to disintegrate: the case of integrity and transparency assessment in Thailand

Abstract

Purpose Governments increasingly use corruption risk assessments (CRAs) to identify institutional vulnerabilities and promote integrity. The purpose of this paper is to examine Thailand’s Integrity and Transparency Assessment (ITA), a perception-based CRA developed by the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Despite its prominence and investment, the ITA appears ineffective in detecting corruption risks or supporting reform. This study contributes to global debates by questioning whether perception-based tools, if poorly implemented, become symbolic exercises rather than meaningful governance instruments. Design/methodology/approach This paper combines documentary evidence with quantitative analysis of 29,982 observations from 7,928 local authorities between 2020 and 2023. The authors assess whether ITA scores flag agencies implicated in selected high-profile corruption cases, benchmark national ITA trends against internationally accredited indices (CPI, WGI and Rule of Law Index) and estimate panel regressions incorporating year effects to examine systematic score shifts and associations with political entrenchment. Findings ITA scores do not reliably flag implicated agencies in selected high-profile cases or appear to trigger timely investigative or preventive responses. National ITA trends move in the opposite direction to international governance measures and are strongly negatively correlated with all indicators, suggesting widening divergence between domestic assessments and international evidence of deteriorating governance. Regression results reveal sizeable year-specific effects consistent with systematic score inflation, and higher scores are associated with politically entrenched provincial governments. Research limitations/implications Although causal attribution is constrained by measurement and case-selection limitations, this study identifies critical design flaws in Thailand’s perception-based national CRA and raises concerns about its use in policymaking. This study underscores the need for more reliable, disaggregated data to improve the credibility of CRAs and guide future anti-corruption reforms. Practical implications Reform options include redesigning the conceptual model and score architecture, strengthening independent verification and external evaluation, improving the quality and independence of data collection and reconsidering the ITA’s role as a high-stakes national performance instrument. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first systematic and quantitative construct-validity evaluation of Thailand’s ITA by triangulating documentary case evidence, international benchmarking and panel-based diagnostics of inflation dynamics and political vulnerability, with broader implications for CRA design in other settings.